About The Iconic London Riots Photo

Why that picture taken in London on Tuesday during the riots is going to win a lot of awards:

1. It captures the sense so many of us are feeling lately that (real-life horror movie meets damsel in distress) the world has gone to hell.

2. As a variation on #1: who can’t relate right now to the sense of free fall? (I mean, all of you out there making less than $200k.)

3. Simultaneously plays the fear and the hope card. If the situation mostly evokes utter despair, aren’t we’re all still gullible to the pitch that somebody’s gonna catch us? (I’m thinking of 2008 “hope” theme, as well as Washington’s current supply-side economics death-spiral.)

4.  Echoing the world wide recession, mortgage meltdown and chaos in the financial markets, there is also a Depression-era Wall Street “jumpers” vibe to this.

(photo: Amy Weston/Wenn)